Palestinian NGOs reveal rising rates of so-called ‘honour killings’

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SHOCKING …

Ramallah – Ma’an – A forum of Palestinian organizations which fight anti-women violence published on Monday a report about killing Palestinian women under the guise of so-called family honour. The report covered 3 years from 2004 to 2006.

The report shows that the average number of women killed for challenging patriarchal norms increased from 14 incidents to 32 in one year. The organisation reported that the youngest case which they dealt with was that of a 12 year old girl and the oldest was that of an 85 year old woman. 32 out of 48 reported cases were documented formally as murder on the basis of family honour.

According to the report, from these 32 reported cases of ‘honour killing’, 30 of the murdered girls were Muslim. Of these 30 Muslim victims, 14 were unmarried, 8 were married, 6 were divorced and 2 were widows. Half of the victims were in the Gaza Strip and the rest were in the West Bank. Villages recorded the highest rate of murder of women.

The report also shows that the murder of ‘dishonourable’ women was committed in numerous ways ranging from stabbing to suffocating to poisoning.

In 17 cases, the perpetrators were brothers, while in 5 cases the fathers killed their own daughters.

The report also affirmed that real figures are very hard to attain for several reasons: the lack of formal statistics; the lack of reporting of such cases and the legal closure of many cases in the name of fate and destiny.